


Drunken Elf

by glitterprison



Category: Pitch Perfect (Movies)
Genre: F/F, Pitch Perfect 2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-14
Updated: 2015-12-14
Packaged: 2018-05-06 15:33:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5422391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glitterprison/pseuds/glitterprison
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt from mitchellandbeale@tumblr.com: Don’t imagine Chloe waking up in the middle of the night and going into the kitchen where she found a drunk Beca sitting on the kitchen floor, eating Oreos, and quietly singing Jingle Bells.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Drunken Elf

It wasn’t Beca’s fault that she hated Christmas; all of the blame could be pinned on her parents, or at least that’s the way she saw it. They’d gotten divorced when she was twelve-years-old, and from there on out, the tiny brunette had been forced to split holidays between the two of them, even the seemingly pointless Easter. Her professor of a father had initially pitched these changes as a “fun” and “eye-opening” new “experience,” as if it was yet another thing meant to broaden her horizons. In reality, there was nothing fun about being put on the spot and having to choose which parent to spend which holiday with, nor was opening two different sets of presents, even if it meant she got more stuff. There was nothing eye-opening about breaking old traditions and creating new ones when the step-monster joined her father’s side of the family. And there were no experiences and traditions in the world she longed to relive like the ones she had when she was younger, before the bitterness of a failed marriage had frozen her heart. So, her love of cookie making, house decorating and gift giving had dissipated over the years, at least until Chloe had come around to warm her back up.

Chloe was the reason Beca was trying, perhaps a bit too late. Nothing unusual there though, right?

They’d had a small spat earlier, one that started with Beca failing to react with even the slightest bit of grace after Chloe had gone a bit haywire during an afternoon shopping trip. There were few things Chloe Beale loved almost as much as Beca, and one of those few happened to be the holidays. After running a couple of “errands,” she’d arrived back home with several strings of lights, an entire family of plush snowmen, and sickeningly cute, festive signs, among a dozen other things to decorate their new, tiny, shared apartment. The brunette had harshly detested of her girlfriend’s purchases, nearly causing Chloe to burst into tears. Her firm insistence that she wouldn’t be joining in on any decorating had caused the redhead to visibly deflate, which immediately made Beca regret her words and left Chloe alone to ponder whether her girlfriend was more hurt or angry.  

Regardless, Beca was such a sucker for any expression that crossed Chloe’s face, especially when it came to that disappointed pout and the glassy, blue eyes that made her feel like shit. That was exactly how she found herself in the living room at one-thirty in the morning sifting through an endless amount of bags from Target and Home Goods, attempting to find  _somewhere_  to start just to see her girlfriend smile. Decorating wasn’t her thing by any means, but Beca sure as hell loved Chloe and  _hated_  seeing her cry. If there was one thing she knew she could do, it was budge on the matter and give it a shot.

…But, there was no way she was getting festive without alcohol.

Her personal holiday traditions necessitated booze, and it didn’t seem like she should stray from them when it came to decorating. Since her heart seemed to be thawing ever-so-slightly, now seemed like a special enough occasion to pop open that bottle of wine they’d been saving, and since she was so classy, fuck using a glass. It wasn’t like she planned on sharing, so drinking straight from the bottle seemed like the way to go. Taking the wine back into the living room, Beca made sure to use a coaster, because, oh-em-gee, they couldn’t have ring marks on the glass surface, and made herself comfortable next to the coffee table on the floor, intermittently taking long sips while investigating via dumping the contents of the numerous bags littering the floor in front of the couch. Lights seemed like a fairly generic and safe place to start, if she could only figure out how to open the damn box, fingers fumbling over the stupid cardboard latch. Of course, in the time it’d taken her to locate the lights in the sea of decorations, she’d clearly underestimated the amount of wine she drank and the effects consuming it so quickly would have on her tiny body.

“Chloe!” Beca called out instinctively, hands stilling in her lap as she huffed out a handful of swears when she belatedly realized the redhead was asleep (as most people tended to be at this particular hour of the night). The point was to ensure the redhead remained that way, that she awoke to the surprise of a winter wonderland. At this rate, however, the surprise wasn’t going to be much more than an upsetting one, as all Beca had succeeded in doing was making a mess. With a sigh, she gently tossed the box of lights aside and reached into the nearest bag full of snacks, figuring it was about time for a break.

“What are you smiling at?” Beca grumbled to the foil snowman grinning up at her from a package of winter Oreos. Ripping open the top, her eyes narrowed as she she carefully inspected the red icing, eventually deciding it was acceptable and picking one up to take a bite. Discontent with the sole sound of cookies crunching between her teeth, she grabbed the smallest of snowmen from the family sitting beside her, staring at her with their beady, little eyes and shook it, bemusedly giggling when the bells attached to it jingled.

Maybe, just maybe, it was sort of, kind of cute…

“Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way…” She quietly started singing while continuing to shake the snowman, only pausing to finish off the Oreo in her other hand. “Oh, what fun it is to ride in a one horse open— ugh, what am I doing? This is terrible.”

Or maybe not.

“I liked it.”

“Jesus, Chlo!” Beca startled, throwing the snowman into the air. “You can’t just creep up on a girl like that. And…” Beca heaved a disappointed sigh, looking around herself at all of the sprawled out decorations as the snowman landed with clink. “You were supposed to stay asleep through all of this, but like, forget it because I suck.”

Between the shouting of her name and the suspicious sound of ruffling, Chloe had awoke to a Beca-less bed. She’d tiptoed down the hall just in time to catch her girlfriend singing with a mouthful of Oreos, a sight that inevitably brought a smile to the redhead’s face. When Beca stopped to bury her face in her hands, Chloe had revealed her presence, thus preventing the brunette from getting very far in her pouting. Venturing further into the room, Chloe bemusedly pointed out, “Well, you’re not exactly a quiet, little elf.”

She navigated her way through the maze of decorations that’d unintentionally been created and sat down in front of the other girl, ducking her head to find Beca’s eyes, adding, “But you don’t suck.”

“Dude, I can’t even open a box of lights,” Beca insisted, “that definitely equates to suckiness.”

At times, dealing with a drunk Beca was a lot like dealing with one of her second grade students. She needed support and reassurance, neither of which Chloe ever had a problem with providing. Reaching for one of the boxes of lights, Chloe punctured the tape holding the top in place with her thumbnail and opened it, passing Beca the strand. Leaning forward, she pressed a reassuring kiss to her forehead and asked, “Where did you want to put them?”

“I mean,” Beca squeaked, unable to fathom how she hadn’t realized there was tape, and pointed to the top of the windowsill, “I thought they might look nice up there.”

Chloe followed her finger, not saying a word about the direction being a bit off, and nodded in agreement. “I like it. They’ll go there, then.” Standing up, she offered Beca a hand, which the smaller girl used as leverage as she unsteadily pulled herself from the ground.

“You should, um—” Was Beca drunk, or was Chloe just blurry? “I’m seeing like, three of you right now,” _and I can barely handle one_ , Beca thought. “Why don’t you hang and I’ll assist?” she suggested, vaguely waggling her finger towards the window again.

“Okay.” Chloe said with a laugh, wrapping an arm around Beca’s waist to help steady her while cautiously leading the way. Beca handed over the string of lights, unable to keep from goofily smiling at the way Chloe’s face instantly lit up with the colorful lights when she plugged them into the wall. It was the face Beca lived for, the face that melted her, even when she was a bottle deep.

_Maybe this year_ , Beca thought,  _Christmas won’t be so bad._

 

**Author's Note:**

> If you liked this fic, you can read more at glitterprision.tumblr.com!


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